Sunday, October 4, 2015

Ex-Nigeria's minister of petroleum Mrs. Alison-Madueke has stayed away from Nigeria since Buhari became President of Nigeria. She has not visited Nigeria since May 29, 2015. She was first appointed into the federal cabinet in 2007 and now faces jail time for charges of money laundering and corruption.

A former director at Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, she was appointed Minister of Transport by late President Umaru Yar’adua. In December 2008, she was redeployed to the Mines and Steel Development ministry.

After Goodluck Jonathan became acting president, Alison-Madueke was appointed Nigeria’s first female petroleum minister in February 2010, a position she held till May 29, 2015.

Here are the Corruption Allegations against Mrs. Alison Madueke

It is alleged that under her watch, dubious oil marketers stole trillions of naira of oil subsidy money. She retained her position after the House of Representatives investigated the scandal and indicted the minister.

Probes by independent audit firms, including the KPMG and Pricewaterahousecoopers, confirmed billions of dollars of oil money were missing, the most notable being $20 billion in 2014.

Alison-Madueke was investigated by the Nigerian Senate on allegation she paid N30.9 billion to contractors while she held office as transport minister.

In 2009, the Senate also indicted Mrs. Alison-Madueke and recommended her for prosecution for allegedly transferring N1.2 billion into a private account of a toll company without due process. The former minister consistently denied any wrongdoing.

In March 2014, the House of Representatives mandated its Committee on Public Accounts to investigate the alleged squandering of N10 billion over a two-year period on the arbitrary charter and maintenance of a Challenger 850 aircraft for unofficial use by Alison-Madueke.

The House said it learnt that Alison-Madueke had allegedly sunk at least N3.120 billion into the maintenance of a private jet dedicated to the service of herself and her family.